CUSTOMIZED CREATIONS Personalized T-shirts created as stylish gifts

Some send recipients a message of encouragement.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
You can find T-shirts imprinted with vegetables, animals, labels and clever phrases. But when you want a personalized gift for someone, a T that says "diva" may not be appropriate.
Consider then No Company T-shirts.
Artist Jess Perlitz of Toronto says she was looking for a way to make some money a little over a year ago, so she launched www.nocom-pany.com.
She provides a four-page questionnaire about the recipient of the shirt. You mail it to her. And she creates a customized T-shirt image based on your answers.
"I like it that people have a part in the creative process," she says.
The questions are a combination of Barbara Walters' stereotypical queries and a Glamour magazine quiz. "What do you know about this person, he or she doesn't know you know?" she asks. "Is the person a doer or thinker?" And "What animal would you choose to be this person's familiar?" At the end, she asks you to draw a picture.
Some people come up with deep psychological answers or just try to be funny, she says. Occasionally they make up animals, such as a combination of a monkey and a cat. And when they draw pictures, they just create a mess.
Whatever. Perlitz takes the assignment seriously. She likes to try to envision that person as she produces very stylized images.
Some customers want to send the recipient a message such as encouragement in college or in a new job, she says. Some just want to say they care.
Don't be too negative. The questionnaire is sent to the recipient with the gift. Price varies depending on where the shirt is sent. But average for the United States is $39.